Skills

A skill is a Markdown file with instructions for one kind of task, such as “build a cohort survival table” or “write a weekly summary”. Unlike RULES.md, a skill is not sent with every message. The agent loads it only when the task calls for it, which keeps chats fast and focused.

Use a skill in a chat

Type / in the chat input to see the skills available to you, and pick one. The agent loads it and follows its instructions. The agent can also load a skill on its own when it sees that one fits the question.

Polaris has built-in skills for producing Excel and PDF files. Your project can add its own.

Add a skill to a project

Create a Markdown file directly in agent/skills/:

agent/skills/
└── survival-analysis.md

Start the file with front matter that names and describes the skill. The description tells the agent when to use it, so make it specific.

---
name: survival-analysis
description: Compare overall survival between patient groups. Use for questions about survival, prognosis or time to death.
---

# Survival analysis

1. Use `tcga_patients.overall_survival_days` and `overall_survival_event` (1 = died).
2. Leave out patients where `overall_survival_days` is null, and say how many you left out.
3. Report median survival per group in months (days / 30.44), with the group sizes.
4. Draw a line chart of the share of patients alive over time, one line per group.

Rules:

• Polaris reads only .md files placed directly in agent/skills/. Files in subfolders are ignored.
• name defaults to the file name. Each name must be unique.
• A project skill with the same name as a built-in skill replaces it.
• Polaris picks up new and changed skills automatically.

Who can use which skill

Admins can limit skills per user group, and can preload up to 50 skills for a group so they are always in context. See Users and roles.

Skills for coding agents

The Polaris repository also has a skills/ folder with skills for coding agents such as Claude Code and Codex. They help you build and maintain a project, not answer data questions:

Skill	Use it to
setup-context	Set up a new project: scope, database, pda init, pda sync, first RULES.md.
write-context-rules	Write or improve RULES.md.
create-context-tests	Write a test suite and run pda test.
audit-context	Find gaps, conflicts and bloat in a project’s context.
add-semantic-layer	Add a semantic layer once tests show metric problems.
build-custom-charts	Add custom chart types in agent/charts/.
migrate-metabase, migrate-tableau-workbook	Recreate Metabase or Tableau content in Polaris.
deploy-context	Deploy a project from GitHub Actions with pda deploy.

Install them into a project with pda skills.